On opening night, two choreographers showed potential, if not quite promise. Jin-Yeob Cha's Mum is an intriguing, moody duet. Some partnerships are about who wears the trousers; this one's about the jacket and boots.

For Better, For Worse..., by Helix Dance, is a relationship duet. Isobel Cohen and John Thompson start standing against wooden cut-outs of themselves, stiffly hand-in-hand. They move their wooden images about the stage, falling out and making up. Cohen's sharply written speeches include sighs about the girlfriend's body temperature ("arctic"), snaps about what china gets used when. Silences are contented or reproachful.

M GROUPTHE DRESSING ROOMThis work began with company members feigning cleaning and causing a mild ruckus while intermingling and speaking loudly to audience members as they entered the auditorium. Onstage were various items of clothes laying or hanging on six chairs. Soon one member of the company began sweeping the floor as the lights darkened. With the white back drop changing to a blue shade the music began.

The dance was episodic with each section having a different scenario to impart. In the first two sections, a custodian seemed to represent the real world while the dancers, spirits or spectres existing in the custodian’s mind, moved around the stage. Through out the work there seemed to be two dimensions, one in which the cleaner or later in the work a single dancer, inhibited the real world. There were then sequences, duets and solos and such that seemed to inhibit a protagonist’s mind. In the first section the dancers, dressed in red leotards, black tights and wore white mask. As an ensemble the dancers’ moves utilised a medley of styles drawn from conventional jazz, ballet, some of the ladies are on pointe, and contemporary movement vocabularies. Lyrical, linear combinations formed the bulk of movement language which incorporated strong dramatic intention. In the next episode the dancers wore red mask, moving around the stage while the custodian, oblivious of their presence, continued her work.

With the lighting state more of an amber red Caroline Lynn enters standing by one of the chairs stage left. Lynn’s movement begins in silence but she is soon joined by a suitor, Tony Anderson. Their duet, an uncomplicated scenario of young love expressed through moves and poses with oppositional spatial relationships, is accompanied by a lush piano score that accentuates the lyrical ness of the movement. A yellow section begins with dancers who enter and rearrange the chairs and change clothes as other dancers enter. What follows is the enactment of several common incidents that could happen in any dressing room in Western theatre. Comical for those with back stage experience, a curiosity for those not in the know, everything is portrayed from mice in the room to recognisable dancer type warm ups. The music by Yumi Cawkwell and Ryuichi Sakamoto for the entire work but especially for this episode is used to an advantage to emphasize each event as well as support the ensembles’ movement. A blue lite section begins with Sarah Christopher who enters greeting the other dancers as they leave. A moment of contemplation and Christopher is joined by Harvey Klein. The intention of this duet seems a different kind of love than the first. This duet has the same melodic feel with moves coordinated with the music but incorporates more balletic forms. In particular the solo for Klein is comprised of attitude and second position turns that progress on a diagonal to Christopher. Christopher performs gestures that seem to indicate she is pregnant and Klein, seemingly more mature in movement and posture seems to indicate he is no longer with this woman. As the duet ends and Klein exits the other dancers enter and console Christopher. Has Klein simply left or died we can only imagine.

This work with its particular scenarios works well for those who can relate to the collection of events with the duets having more of a universal depiction easily appreciated by most audience members. The opening with members in the audience seemed cliché though amusing. The program notes indicate Miwa Saeki devised the concept and direction with company members assisting in the composition of the work. Given the metisse of movement vocabulary and eclectic ness of technical/performance skill of the dancers this work had sound compositional astuteness and managed to maintain a level of integrity for each form.

COMPANY Kx2J BLACK TUNNEL Kuei-Ju Tung begins her dance laying on the floor stage left in a white shaft of light; then black out. Lights up and only a purple cloth remained on the floor. Several more times the lights are brought up and taken out while the dancer takes several postures. Moving sequentially to stand then to bend forward the music quickens and Tung grabs the purple cloth stretching it over head. The fabric seems rather taut, not stretchable. The fabric is draped around the upper torso and tied at the front and after several torso contortions Tung falls to the floor and rolls centre stage. More scrumming brings the dancer to stand and flinging the cloth in several gather and fling motions. Walking upstage and down stage and diagonal more intricate moves occur accompanied by percussive music. Using the fabric like ribbons Tung moves through the space. This episode finishes centre in a spot of white light. Tung peels the fabric from her and with more melodic like music she moves more freely. Is Tung freed from some burden; has she succeeded in breaking from some enclosure? The decline of brilliance of the spot light proposes another intention. As Tung moves away from the cloth, her spatial arrangement and movement is somewhat cylindrical; up to the air and into the floor with little if any leg extensions. Tung returns to the centre, the spot returns and she grabs the cloth and stands as the lights descend.

Program notes indicate a tunnel in which the feeling is “close to death” with space getting smaller and noise getting louder. The work started well enough but from the centre spot to the dance interlude it lost the plot and became more a dance for dance sake not what the journey had set out to investigate. Good idea that needs editing, another choice of music and devotion to the theme.

SHINE ON DANCE COMPANYTHE MOAT OF TEARSProgram notes indicate this work is a series of short pieces looking at different aspects of domestic violence. Choreographically episodic in its composition this work proposed the enactment of domestic violence through movement parody and spoken text. The choreographer, Debbie Shine drew from several movement vocabularies lyrical jazz and contemporary being the most extensively utilised. The lighting assisted in metaphorically supporting what the movement suggested and the music also assisted in carrying the message intended.

First duet with lyrical moves expressing a tender love turned to an enactment of abuse. A trio of men dancing in a red light, rolled, slipped into the floor, slap each other, carried each other through space and somersaulted enacting what seemed to be some macho fraternity like camaraderie. This was then followed by a woman laid on the floor and a man with a red carnation. With black and blue light the man spoke saying among other lines of prose “keep her, love her, free her”. During this duet he grabs his crouch relating what to do with a woman as he eats the flower and walks off. A trio of women begins comprised mostly of rolling and scrumming on the floor with intermittent sequences of standing postures. More spoken text and the women enact the word “alone”. Four men and a woman dance next performing a collage of contrapuntal duet and solo movement phrases. While the gentlemen perform single gestures, postures and “looks” upstage, a duet occurs or some lifting sequence with two or more men occurs. The woman dances with each one and at the end demeans them all. There is a duet of unabashed physical abuse presented with flinging and tussling type movements. Ironically this was potentially the most inventively successful duet in the work. The next episode has the sound of a shower with a woman sitting in a spot of white light. She is crying and tearing at herself. We can imagine from her gestures what has happened to her. Blackout, lights up and a man struggles on the floor in a bath robe. Spoken text reciting possibly the words that provided the starting point for the sections in this dance, “moat of tears” and this man is taunted and driven off stage. The coda begins with two women dancing then a quartet is formed and the dance is almost celebratory.

The light feel of the last section following such provocative material along with spoken text lacking in clear diction or audio support sabotaged the effectiveness of this work. Also, there was a time in contemporary dance when diminished technical training or lack of experience with conventional movement vocabularies was privileged. Audiences filled with friends and supporters understood the intentions for such a dance and applauded the triumphs of dancers whose heart was in the right place but whose technical and compositional skills were not as accomplished. The challenge is whether a work such as this can succeed without seeming trite.

Resolution!, a key event in the annual UK dance calendar, provides a platform for the new generation of choreographers and performers. Over seven weeks in January and February more than 100 companies present their work, with three different productions each night. The Festival takes place in the Robin Howard Theatre at London’s The Place, the venue and dance school where UK contemporary dance took off in the 1960’s.

Although most of the artists involved in Resolution! are UK-based, ten continental European companies are selected for the Aerowaves segment of the Festival and this year the “The Last Hairy” from Estonia was one of those chosen from over 300 applicants. This work is the outcome of a close collaboration between directors, Oksana Titova and Taavet Jansen, designer Jaanika Teresmaa, dramaturge Juhan Ulfsak and the dancers, Oksana Titova and Päär Pärenson. Exploring the themes of beauty, relationships and gender issues with quirky humour, “The Last Hairy” was one of the hits of the past year in Tallinn. The visual aspects are strong, with a repeated motif of Titova, emerging and retreating to a bath located towards the back of the stage. However, that bath came close to causing a disaster - with one week to go before the performance, the team learnt that The Place had yet to find one for the performance. For a time it even looked as though the artists might have to arrange to transport their own bath, but at the last minute, a substitute was found in London, and, if it wasn’t as beautiful as the post-modern original, its traditional clawed feet certainly gave it character.

The unexpected plays an important part in “The Last Hairy”, as Titova’s exquisite gowns and her elegant, ballet-trained movement are subverted, by her sudden baldness, after the first of many blackouts, then a scene with shaving cream everywhere and later, by a metal arm. The obsessive nature of beauty worship is personified by Pärenson’s besuited suitor. In one scene he kisses Titova’s metal arm and then, after another blackout, he is still kissing her arm, but Titova has deserted it and is standing by a wall. Pärenson is a great mover and this work gives him the chance to show off his smooth spins and jumps in street shoes and his distinctive floor work. Whether bourreeing on demi-pointe, ballroom dancing or scrambling across the floor after pieces of jewellery, Titova always holds our attention. Finally, in a scene reminding me of cosmetic surgery, Pärenson cuts open her skullcap and excavates her hair.

Festival Director, John Ashford told me: “In Aerowaves, I aim for a geographic mix and try to present work in styles that we don’t usually see in the UK. That’s why I wanted to have “The Last Hairy” and I’m pleased with the outcome.” Leading dance critic, Donald Hutera, also enjoyed the work and the audience reaction was generally very positive: “Visually stunning and the use of video was good,” “So crazy, but brilliant - I loved the interactions between the two performers: playful and teasing,” “Reminded me of a surrealist painting. At 40 minutes, one of the longest works in Resolution!, but it didn’t feel too long.”

By coincidence, both the UK performances in the same programme used music by Arvo Pärt, giving the evening a strong Estonian flavour and earlier in the week, Resolution! presented another work by a choreographer from the Baltic country, Teet Kask, who has been studying at the London dance conservatoire, Laban, and thus qualified for Resolution! as a UK-based artist. Overall, these performances presented a strong calling card for Estonian culture at Resolution! and helped English audiences to appreciate the rapid development of dance in this Northern European state.

Resolution! is a lucky, or unlucky, dip with three new or newish companies a night over a 7-week period. Sometimes the young artists are still feeling their way and are not ready for the glare of public display, but top names like Russell Maliphant, Wayne McGregor and Rafael Bonachela have all benefited from early exposure at Resolution! in the past and, even if a performance is never going to emulate that elite group, it can bring an invigorating freshness and enthusiasm.

The opening slot on 17th January brought Kay Herm Physical Theatre’s “While We Were Shopping” and with extensive use of video projection of celebrity magazines, Fashion TV and ads for better skin, throughout the performance, this was a satire on the superficiality of the consumer society. The dancers repeat phrases and movements and talk about their own bodies and if the choreography and performances are basic, the initial effect of this physical theatre work is light and made me smile. However, a section, based on Coronation Street, although amusing, seemed to belong in another work.

The sting comes in the tail, when the movement and shallow talk continue, but are intercut with images and quotes about female genital mutilation. This made me sit up and consider the damaging nature of so much of our presentation of the female body, especially our obsession with the trivial, when there are major gender issues to address. In the reviews on The Place website, Kay Herm is accused of gratuitous exploitation of this theme, but as someone who has campaigned against FGM through Amnesty International and other organisations for 15 years, I support the company’s treatment of this issue; an unrelenting, serious examination on this theme would not have had the same impact, in my view.

By chance, this was almost Estonian culture week at Resolution! with works by two choreographers from the Baltic state and two other instances of the use of Arvo Pärt’s music. Teet Kask, has been studying choreography at the London dance conservatoire, Laban, and thus qualified for Resolution! as a UK-based artist. I had already seen a longer version of his “Sad Pleasure” and although some works suffer from abbreviation, this 25-minute re-working made a greater impact than the recent longer staging in Tallinn. Using spoken texts in several languages, including Eloise’s letters to Abelard, Kask’s complex choreography for four dancers weaves intriguing shapes against a backdrop of changing colours. The simple, melancholy music of Märt-Matis Lill underlines the fleeting delight of love and the problematic nature of relationships explored in the dance. “Sad Pleasures” is a movement-based work, fitting easily into the English paradigm of contemporary dance and the performance was well received by most of those I spoke to, although some found the text a distraction. Kask has certainly taken his student dancers to a professional level and I was particularly impressed by the smooth power of Kristian Tirsgaard.

Finally, we had SIN Cru’s “Stone Seeds” and with performers called Ben Jammin’ and Mach-1, it had to be hip-hop and break dance. As a theatrical presentation of these dance forms, it matched some of the top US shows I have seen and its 16 minutes presented a tight example of organisation. We know from Debra Bull’s attempts at hip-hop that this is mighty difficult dance and it’s good to see it accepted alongside more conventional contemporary forms. The dancers “confront their roots” and we hear about the problems of falling and rejection by schoolteachers, but it was primarily a joyful celebration of different forms of street dance. Apart from the solos, other high spots included a fine jump-cut video of kids on the street, hip-hop to Wagner and some interesting partnering. At the end, “Stone Seeds” received enormous applause and I hope this vibrant collective of dancers, musicians and visual artists will be delighting audiences for a long time to come.

Overall I marked this down as a successful Resolution! evening with a mix of styles and themes and John Ashford told me that the standard generally is good this year and he has yet to have that sinking feeling with three unsuccessful works on one evening, when he wonders whether he should give the audience their money back.

Walking Without Travelling is less a journey than an accumulation of sounds and images. There’s recorded text about going north, arriving, going south. There’s live speech: a woman recites some numbers, and says, ‘Tell Laura I love her’. There are projections: plants, cityscapes, pebbles. And there is Anaïs Bouts’s choreography for the four dancers: sweeps across the stage, some nicely crafted staggered formations and, oddly, a tango. Near the end, a guy tells a lady in red that there’s nothing in her head but a pebble. Narrative fragmentation and free association may not be such a good idea if they leave the audience trying to get blood out of a stone.

Rest less me is also based on fragmented stories and images, but could not be more different. It splices together the personal memories of choreographer Annie Pui Ling Lok and dancer Shamita Ray. But you needn’t know about these origins for the piece to work its magic. It is performed in silence, its only décor a taped square on stage. The opening section is built from little skips and turns, motifs that accumulate almost mathematically into a game of choreographic hopscotch. Subsequent sections follow the same pattern with different material: over-the-shoulder glances, swizzling on the spot, writing on an imaginary blackboard. The stark choreography is saturated with connotations, and Ray delivers an understated but highly focused performance. A real pleasure.

And now for something completely different. Maker-Do is a physical comedy sketch show for five women by Suzy Harvey. There are a lot of sight gags – some truly funny, like the party waitresses who turn into flamenco dancers, fingers elongated with breadsticks, carrot slices and celery sprigs. Chasing the beacon of light entertainment, they run through bits of salsa, jive and ballet. There are plenty of neat ideas, but the erratic pacing lacks the timing comedy needs.

w@ver / The Edge of words / Rapproach'ment Mon 16 Jan 06

With its luxuriously embroidered costumes and ornamental fans, W@ver may look iridescent, but the piece itself is decidedly lacklustre. Choreographer Baoyin Hinh says it depicts a journey from heaven to earth. Granted, there’s a projected moon, mists, an angelic choir on the soundtrack. Baoyin undulates gracefully, her diaphanous pink fans fluttering like celestial jellyfish. Three other glistening women rather dutifully execute some mid-paced modern dance manoeuvres. The music quickens. The dancers don’t. There is an elusive stand-off between swathes of pink and blue fabric. Short and sweet? Undoubtedly. Decorative? Very. But heaven, earth? Hell, no.

Abi Cook’s The Edge of Words is an inventive and boldly conceived work, given a compelling performance by Elinor Baker. Mostly she faces away from us, her backless cocktail dress exposing the taut, twisting muscles of her shoulders. Her arms jab sideways and upwards simultaneously, they lash about her torso and yank her head, or reach like tendrils towards a distant glow of light. She’s anxious, introspective, tugged about by her own limbs. The music begins with ominous, spluttering rhythms, quietening to plaintive broken piano chords. The one wrong note in this otherwise excellent piece is the finale. Julie London sings ‘Cry Me a River’, and Baker’s gestures now match the words – a reassuringly easy correspondence that tames the wilder currents preceding it.

The first part of Verticil Productions’ Rapproach’ment, to Bach cello music, comprises short solos, duets and ensembles that show off the dancers’ leggy ballet. The busy choreography doesn’t really gel until the closing group dance, an inventive composition which finally gets to grips with the musical phrasing. The second part, to Aphex Twin, suits its music better. A voyeuristic story of a woman and two men in a hotel room, intercutting energetic live action with a film projection, it’s slick, rather sleazy entertainment.

Into The Place and up into the air; the rigged up rope dominating the stage promised aerialistics. Whether Ockham Razor’s combination of circus and visual theatre fits Resolution! became irrelevant once Every Action… began. True to the simplicity principle implicit in their name Newton’s third law was demonstrated with grace, humour and charm. Three women made their entrances bearing boxes of increasing size, and the solitary man appeared Atlas-like shouldering his. The boxes allowed the performers to use all of the space, but it was on the ropes that they delighted, effortlessly winding, climbing, and counterbalancing. The cords were gleefully transformed into a swing for an innocently touching love duet, the intertwining bodies completely at ease in their suspended peril. A balanced mix of comedy, theatricality, playfulness and aerial artistry, and the ending was inspired.

Back to earth and into the void: Davidence was deadly serious yet hollow. Everything about the Dialectica quartet was dramatically overwrought, choreography, urgent Balanescu strings, lighting, performers, even the programme notes, but with no modulation to relieve the unremitting intensity, it verged on the comic. The choreography had ambitions to impress with a flurry of technical moves and lifts for the three men and sole female dancer, yet it felt awkward, and the balletic style and clichéd gestures descended to near parody.

Out of the gloom and into the chaos of Skinworks’ theatrical Conversations of subtle violence. The opening juddering moves of the six performers in shadows belied what was to follow: shouting, a chaotic and lengthy game of catch, business with a bucket, dashes of car washing, Pina Bausch and Palermo, and a dodgy overhead projector beaming ‘the unsaid’ onto the back wall. Bottom line: quaintly European bonkers dance theatre with concept overriding content, tailing off bemusingly.

TRINITY FLOWMETAMORPHOSISChoreographer Robert Halley seemed to have a point for his dance that resided within his beliefs. Program notes and some of the spoken text quote from the words of spiritual leader Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain the spiritual head of Osho-Rajneesh movement started in the 1970’s. The dance though revealed only a hint of the words of Osho which profess a relentless search for enlightenment.

As the dance opens there seems to be one central figure, Deidrea Halley, who is somehow different from the rest. The other numbering four in total are disparate and move as an ensemble though not totally coordinated in every nuance. Dancers performed mundane movement, virtuosic and conventional movements that most times obstruct this central figure. Monologue spoken by Kurt Kansley speaks of truth being a dance of life. At several points spoken text accompanies a solo dance by Deidrea Halley. There is also a piano solo by Kansley which is joined briefly by Hugo Cortez who plays percussively on the floor. There are a series of individual solos and a duet, some contemporary dance, other acrobatic tumbling type moves while Deidrea Halley did yogic like sequences upstage left. Given her spatial relationship, Deidrea Halley’s movement voice was stilted, silenced by the movements of the others but perhaps that was what was intended.

The dancers are all exceptional performers though one is forced to contemporise the significance of their moves in relation to each other; in relation to the text, in relation to Deidrea Halley. The work starts out vested in retrospection but ends when moments of virtuosity seem more for their own sake than for meaning of the work. Sensationalised, these movements confuse the logic of the work. Why are these dancers in this space; what is their relationship to each other? As the ensemble breaks into solo expressions; most are expressions of frustration, scattered, disparate and desperate movement phrases, some angered, running around the space having little consequence.

If the intention was the deconstruction of conventional ensemble order, the spatial arrangements were not scattered enough. If the intention was a gathering of like minded devotees performing their own expressions of a particular credo, sometimes dancing together, sometimes not then this was partially accomplished. One wonders though what was the single meaning embodied in the central figure, what was the message the choreographer intended.

RACE & RHYTHMFRIDAWoman in red laying in huddle, crawls, and swings legs akimbo, performs strained stretches to stand and then falls abruptly downstage left in a strip of white light. Given the work is about Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter who drew extensively from Mexican folk art traditions to express her life experiences and perspectives, the sound accompanying this sequence of movement is a bus wreck. As the work progresses more dancers enter performing flamenco like spirals in the back, stomping, one playing castanets fluently. In seated positions on the floor five female dancers perform spiralled positions while portraits of Kahlo, are projected on the back drop. The portraits are photographed reproductions of Kahlo’s retablo-style paintings.

As the portraits of Kahlo play on the back drop each one of the dancers take a turn to perform a solo upstage centre. A range of dresses, a simple blue dress, a colourful, festive dress and a wedding dress travelled across the stage on hangers. Denzil Barnes enters performing break dance type moves as the pictorial imagery of Kahlo continues. Several duets occur, one an argentine type tango between two women and a tense physical quarrel between Barnes and one of the women. Throughout the work there are references to Kahlo, a dancer miming cutting her hair while the singer, Monica Acosta at the beginning of the work carries a body brace and later a small skeleton. Acosta later speaks Kahlo’s words, “I have neither father or mother to pity my sorrow, I am an orphan all alone I bear torment and disgrace in the depths of my soul, such was the pain”.

The performers’ depiction of particular events in Kahlo’s life represented and expressed themselves much like Kahlo did; taping Mexican and Spanish performance vocabularies. The singing voice and movement vocabulary is a mixture of Mexican and Spanish expressions, flamenco like moves and using castanets mixed with contemporary dance expressions. The costumes from those worn to the garments suspended from the rigging were Mexican ish in look and colour. This dance, performed with reverence, seemed a movement collection of Kahlo’s life changing moments that defined a course and way of life. The work is a reverential collage seemingly not intended to depict a biography of Kahlo as much as a declaration of some of Kahlo’s most troubling life experiences.

INNERCOREDANCEEMMERGENCEHouselights out and four dancers take their place while a projection of blue green ooze is seen on the backdrop. The image seems of a substance that melts or decays while the dancers move on the floor and about the space with reaching gestures. The sound is at first a vibration of a sort that progresses into a tonal hum. Soon the hum sound gives way to a rhythm and the dancers’ individual statements, simple, vertical mundane progressions develop into recognisable contemporary dance moves that travel about the stage causing simultaneous statements, chance encounters and interactions. Running upstage and down stage the projections disappear and a white light throws shadows of the dancers on the back drop. The dancers are now pulsating to the beat of “Spirit of the Dance” a popular dance music cut. The music selection draws on several well known dance cuts mostly from the 1980’s/1990’s while the dancers perform coordinated jazz/popular dance moves. Considering that EMMERGENCE might signify emergence and how the work started one wonders how that initial creative spark ended up being insipid and trite.

65 LITRES PRODUCTIONSADAGIO, CON BRIOGuitar player, Rui Pereira Rodriguez, and dancer, Adriana D. Pegorer are positioned downstage. Pegorer is standing in a slice of yellow light slowly turning as her arms rise with her back in a slight spiral. Connected to Pegorer’s ankle a collection of shoes entangle about her legs. The guitar continues to play. As Pegorer moves methodically upstage the shoes connected to her ankle are dragged along. As the light descends she exits and Dylan Elmore enters. Rodriguez has also left the stage and imagery is being projected on the upstage right corner of the scrim. Elmore dances; subtle hip moves with his image superimposed on the projected imagery. Pegorer also returns and her subtle moves are also captured on the projected imagery. The moves are reminiscent of the tango and the imagery is also reminiscent of popular tango locations in South America. As the separate figures continue to move they are soon in close proximity but neither are touching. Tango esque is the foundation of the moves and slowly brief encounters occur. The slowness of their moves affords an opportunity to watch the imagery. The sound is a loop of tango music that repeats several times with intermittent silence. Every so often Elmore mixes his subtle tango moves with conventional Capoeira esque moves. Pegorer though remains within the motif of tango moves set by her from the beginning. A duet performed on a diagonal upstage right to downstage left complimented the music brilliantly and added a bit of lushness to this simple subtle dance. The incidental contemporary dance moves offered by Elmore though seemed an unnecessary virtuosic distraction. The relationship between video, music and Pegorer’s movements with Elmore brought an inspired interpretation of tango. The subtle tango like moves incorporated elegant, lithe intentions. This dance could do with so editing but was performed beautifully.

TURBULANCE DANCE COMPANYESTHER Choreographer Lucy Field tells her version of Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar. With projected text and dancers who add a layer of drama to their movement we are presented with a rendering through costume, music and movement of New York 1963 and the circumstances of Esther Greenwood, the main character in Plath’s novel. The dance illustrates through movement the frustrations of Greenwood that eventually drive her into madness. Dancers appear at the beginning in black skirts and white shirts and a man, John Hurley wearing a black suit. One woman offers another advice which seems to be dismissed. A couple dance but it seems to be a recollection or imagined affair as one of the women stands contemplating notes or letters downstage left. Outfits are changed; one in a night gown, another in long white pyjama shirt. The dance degrades into a romp expressing frustrated love. The women seem to represent different aspects of one figure while words state “Esther you’ve got the perfect set-up for a neurotic”. As projected text reads: “I am I am I am”, three women feign suicide either by slicing wrist, taking pills or hanging. One though arrests her actions and seems to wake from her turmoil. Combining contemporary with jazz dance like inclinations Field and her dancers’ rendition of Plath’s novel is an intriguingly honest one.

SEMEKOR PERFORMING ARTSSHADOW OF THE PASTFive dancers wear skirts; each a different colour. Green, blue, red, yellow, and white each dancer was seated on their knees facing upstage in individual specials. After an assortment of arm gestures and flickering hands, three take off the long shirts of colour while one collects them and takes them off stage. There is a chance encounter and an embrace between the only man, Mohammed Dordoh, and one of the women as the lights descend changing the dancers into silhouettes moving on the back drop. This encounter progresses into a frenzy of lifts between the couple that eventually include the other women. As a group the women then assault Dordoh and chase him from the stage. Ensemble dancing between the women occurs and Dordoh returns to dance in a red light downstage while ladies sit and watch upstage left. As Dordoh finishes one of the women beckons the others to admire him. They embrace and pretend a mock celebration of cleaning hands and face and eating. A celebratory like dance ensues. This metisse of African and conventional contemporary dance is performed skilfully and evidence of a rich African Diasporaic experience. Program notes hint to “a myth of a patriarchal Africa and the true strength that lies beneath”. The dramatic tension had a beginning, middle and end but the story telling is not entirely clear. As the dance ended and admiring friends applauded intensely there was a need for some of us to know the meaning of some of the interactions between characters.

For all those of you who missed it the first time round, or in case you fancy seeing it again, a gap in the Resolution! programming has meant that John and I have been asked to perform my piece, 'For Better, For Worse...' again on the 14th February. Sod Valentine's day, it's for card maufacturers anyway, come and watch some contemporary dance.

This performance is also at The Place, 17 Duke's Road, London WC1 and the box office number is still 0207 387 0031, or you can buy online at www.theplace.org.uk under the Resolution! section, but the date is Tuesday 14th February 2006 at eight pm.

A lot of nothing made up the majority of Whisper. A man and a woman sat at a table, launched violently into lurching and flailing madness, then stopped. A talking film droned on about talking. The man jerked intermittently. The woman peeled some oranges. Later she regurgitated them onto the floor. For a horrible minute I thought they were going to get naked but they stopped short, put their clothes in a bucket of water and put them back on again. I’ve no idea what it was about and I couldn't care less. Intensity is no substitute for substance.

Bottlefed Tanztheater aspired to address the life, love and mad demise of sculptor Camille Claudel, one time squeeze of Rodin. It’s a tall order to take on a life in 25 minutes with two girls, a boy and a big chair. Told in spoken word and stylised gesture, they occasionally broke into simple dance diversions and chalked up dates on the chair to help us keep up. Timid, over ambitious and reliant on narrative it lacked the very passion that Camille’s story bursts with. Graffitied on the chair, the words “get me out of here”. Need I say more?

IMAGE paraded vain and desperate females in the clutch of obsession for fashion and the perfect size 10. Missing the satire button they played for cheap laughs. A fitting room scene featured derivative pop routines. posing, bitching, and preening. A cosmetic surgery consultation film parody segued into an overly long surgery nightmare that failed to convey horror but stuck with schlock. Framed by a trite rhyming conversation between insecure friends this shallow piece ended shockingly with the cackling laugh from the end of Thriller, the company peering round the wings shining torches under their faces. Dance theatre really shouldn’t be like this.

RESOLUTION! is an annual showcase of new dance companies from the UK and the rest of Europe. Now in its 17th year, it is an established forum for young dance talent to make their presence felt. It is a lottery as to whether you get good performers, so be aware that you could be in for a varied evening.

The night I went featured Trinity Flow with Metamorphosis, Race and Rhythm with Frida and Innercordance with Emmergence (sic). The blurb for the evening said to be prepared to be intrigued and baffled. Well, I was certainly rather baffled.

Trinity Flow kicked off the evening with a dance set to some great music by contemporary composer Philip Glass. The dance told the tale of these individuals looking for meaning to their existence. It was all rather lovely until a voiceover cut in blabbering some complete rubbish about "searching for your truth" - marring a rather good performance.

Next came Race and Rhythm with a piece inspired by the life and art of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Overall it was just odd and rather pretentious.

Last was Innercoredance. Their show started rather well, made a strange transition to early 1990s Chicago house and ended with a dance not dissimilar to one done in Fame! This just confused me. Overall, certainly a memorable evening.

Five weeks into 2006 most people's January resolutions have already been quietly dropped or modified. For the 105 dance companies taking part in the annual Resolution! season at The Place, however, ambitious resolve is firmer than ever.

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